1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to lithography technologies and, more particularly, to methods of defect inspection for a photomask.
2. Related Art
As semiconductor devices become more highly integrated, a wavelength of light generated from a light source used in photolithography processes has been continuously shorter and shorter to transfer finer patterns onto a wafer. In order to transfer finer patterns, mask patterns which are transferred onto the wafer need to have a small line width or a small line pitch. In case that pattern errors occur, such as overlay errors, after performing the photolithography processes using the photomask, a photomask correction process to correct or to improve such pattern errors may be performed. The photomask correction process may change light transmittance of a field region of the photomask, in which the mask patterns are located, thus inspection noise may be generated during the defect inspection process of the photomask.